Vocabulary Basics: Parts of Speech

This section of EnhanceMyVocabulary.com is all about learning the nine great classes of the
English language referred to as Parts of Speech.

Page 1: Article, Noun, Adjective, Pronoun

All the words in the English language are divided into nine great classes. These classes are called
the Parts of Speech. They are Article, Noun, Adjective, Pronoun, Verb, Adverb, Preposition,
Conjunction and Interjection. Of these, the Noun is the most important, as all the others are more
or less dependent upon it. A Noun signifies the name of any person, place or thing, in fact, anything
of which we can have either thought or idea.
There are two kinds of Nouns, Proper and Common. Common Nouns are names which belong in
common to a race or class, as people, city. Proper Nouns distinguish individual members of a race
or class as John, Philadelphia. In the former case people is a name that belongs in common to the
whole race of humankind, and city is also a name that is common to all large centers of population,
but John signifies a particular individual of the race, while Philadelphia denotes a particular one
from among the cities of the world.

Nouns are varied by Person, Number, Gender, and Case. Person is that relation existing between
the speaker, those addressed and the subject under consideration, whether by discourse or
correspondence. The Persons are First, Second and Third and they represent respectively the
speaker, the person addressed and the person or thing mentioned or under consideration.

Number is the distinction of one from more than one. There are two numbers, singular and plural;
the singular denotes one, the plural two or more. The plural is generally formed from the singular
by the addition of s or es.

Gender has the same relation to nouns that sex has to individuals, but while there are only two
sexes, there are four genders: masculine, feminine, neuter and common. The masculine gender
denotes all those of the male kind, the feminine gender all those of the female kind, the neuter
gender denotes inanimate things or whatever is without life, and common gender is applied to
animate beings, the sex of which for the time being is indeterminable, such as fish, mouse, bird,
etc. Sometimes things that are without life as we conceive it and that, properly speaking, belong to
the neuter gender, are, by a figure of speech called Personification, changed into either the
masculine or feminine gender, as, for instance, we say of the sun, He is rising; of the moon, She is
setting.

Case is the relation one noun bears to another or to a verb or to a preposition. There are three
cases, the Nominative, the Possessive and the Objective. The nominative is the subject of which we
are speaking or the agent that directs the action of the verb; the possessive case denotes
possession, while the objective indicates the person or thing which is affected by the action of the
verb.

An Article is a word placed before a noun to show whether the latter is used in a particular or
general sense. There are but two articles, a or an and the.

An Adjective is a word that qualifies a noun, that is, shows some distinguishing mark or
characteristic belonging to the noun.

This section of EnhanceMyVocabulary.com is all about learning the nine great classes of the
English language referred to as Parts of Speech.
Page 2: Verb, Adverb, Preposition, Conjunction, Interjection

Continued from Parts of Speech, Page 1.

The Verb
A verb is a word that implies action or the doing of something, or it may be defined as a word that
affirms, commands or asks a question.

Thus, the words John the table, contain no assertion, but when the word strikes is introduced,
something is affirmed, hence the word strikes is a verb and gives completeness and meaning to the
group.

The simple form of the verb without inflection is called the root of the verb; e. g. love is the root
of the verb, "To Love."

Verbs are regular or irregular, transitive or intransitive.

A verb is said to be regular when it forms the past tense by adding ed to the present or d if the
verb ends in e. When its past tense does not end in ed it is said to be irregular.

A transitive verb is one the action of which passes over to or affects some object; as "I struck the
table." Here the action of striking affected the object table, hence struck is a transitive verb.

An intransitive verb is one in which the action remains with the subject; as "I walk," "I sit," "I
run." Many intransitive verbs, however, can be used transitively; thus, "I walk the horse;" walk is
here transitive.

Verbs are inflected by number, person, tense and mood.

Number and person as applied to the verb really belong to the subject; they are used with the verb
to denote whether the assertion is made regarding one or more than one and whether it is made in
reference to the person speaking, the person spoken to or the person or thing spoken about.

Tense

In their tenses verbs follow the divisions of time. They have present tense, past tense and future
tense with their variations to express the exact time of action as to an event happening, having
happened or yet to happen.

Mood

There are four simple moods: the Infinitive, the Indicative, the Imperative and the Subjunctive.

The Mood of a verb denotes the mode or manner in which it is used. Thus if it is used in its widest
sense without reference to person or number, time or place, it is in the Infinitive Mood; as "To
run." Here we are not told who does the running, when it is done, where it is done or anything
about it.

When a verb is used to indicate or declare or ask a simple question or make any direct statement,
it is in the Indicative Mood. "The boy loves his book." Here a direct statement is made concerning
the boy. "Have you a pin?" Here a simple question is asked which calls for an answer.

When the verb is used to express a command or entreaty it is in the Imperative Mood as, "Go away."
"Give me a penny."

When the verb is used to express doubt, supposition or uncertainty or when some future action
depends upon a contingency, it is in the subjunctive mood; as, "If I come, he shall remain."
Verbs have two participles, the present or imperfect, sometimes called the active ending in ing and
the past or perfect, often called the passive, ending in ed or d.

The infinitive expresses the sense of the verb in a substantive form, the participles in an adjective
form; as "To rise early is healthful." "An early rising man." "The newly risen sun."

The participle in ing is frequently used as a substantive and consequently is equivalent to an

infinitive; thus, "To rise early is healthful" and "Rising early is healthful" are the same.

The principal parts of a verb are the Present Indicative, Past Indicative and Past Participle; as: Love
Loved Loved

Sometimes one or more of these parts are wanting, and then the verb is said to be defective.

Present Past Passive Participle

Can Could (Wanting)

May Might "
Shall Should "
Will Would "
Ought Ought "
Verbs may also be divided into principal and auxiliary. A principal verb is that without which a
sentence or clause can contain no assertion or affirmation. An auxiliary is a verb joined to the root
or participles of a principal verb to express time and manner with greater precision than can be
done by the tenses and moods in their simple form. Thus, the sentence, "I am writing an exercise;
when I shall have finished it I shall read it to the class." has no meaning without the principal
verbs writing, finished read; but the meaning is rendered more definite, especially with regard to
time, by the auxiliary verbs am, have, shall.

There are nine auxiliary or helping verbs: Be, have, do, shall, will, may, can, ought, and must.
They are called helping verbs, because it is by their aid the compound tenses are formed.

Note that while the proper first-person auxiliary verb is shall, (I shall, we shall) contemporary
speakers generally use "will."

To Be

The verb To Be is the most important of the auxiliary verbs. It has eight parts: am, is, are, was,
were, be, beingand been.

Voice

The active voice is that form of the verb which shows the Subject not being acted upon but acting;
as, "The cat catches mice." "Charity covers a multitude of sins."

The passive voice: When the action signified by a transitive verb is thrown back upon the agent,
that is to say, when the subject of the verb denotes the recipient of the action, the verb is said to
be in the passive voice. "John was loved by his neighbors." Here John the subject is also the object
affected by the loving, the action of the verb is thrown back on him, hence the compound verb was
loved is said to be in the passive voice. The passive voice is formed by putting the perfect
participle of any transitive verb with any of the eleven parts of the verb To Be.